Clause 31 - Observation of proceedings and - working practices
Electoral Administration Bill
1:00 pm
Harriet Harman (Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour)
The clause sets out the mechanisms and arrangements for official observations of elections and electoral services. At present there is no legislative provision for elections in this country to be observed either by international or by domestic observers. The clause tackles that situation by providing for observation of elections themselves and other electoral processes such as registration and processing postal vote applications. It is long and detailed because it starts from scratch.
The clause inserts five new sections into the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The first provides for representatives of the Electoral Commission to attend elections and referendums after having notified the relevant returning or counting officer that they wish to attend. It allows a returning or counting officer to refuse or revoke permission, but they must have a reason for doing so. It sorts out the current position, which does not allow the official attendance of commission representatives, even though they are required to report on elections.
The second new section allows Electoral Commission representatives similar access and terms to observe the working practices of electoral administrators, perhaps outside election time—for example, at registration.
The third new section allows for individuals to be accredited as observers to attend certain election proceedings, including the issue and receipt of postal ballots, the poll and the count, and provides for individuals to apply to the Electoral Commission to be accredited as observers. Once they have obtained such accreditation, they can apply to a particular returning or counting officer to attend particular election proceedings. Both the commission and the returning or counting officer will have the power to refuse or revoke the accreditation, but in each case they must give reasons.
The fourth new section provides for a similar accreditation to be given to organisations, to allow them to nominate members of the organisation to act as observers at the same election proceedings on the same terms.
The last new section requires the Electoral Commission to prepare a code of practise to regulate the attendance of all the observers. The code will provide for the application process, set out the criteria for granting or refusing applications and give guidance on the operation of the code. The code must be prepared in consultation with the Secretary of State and must be laid before Parliament.
I am well aware of the important international role pointed out by the hon. Gentleman—in particular that played by Members of the House who go to observe elections in other parts of the world, sometimes in uncomfortable if not downright dangerous circumstances. I would like to pay tribute to all those Members who go to places such as Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus and other parts of central and eastern Europe—as the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) has done—Iraq, and Tanzania and many other African countries. They play an honourable and important role, and I am glad to have the opportunity to pay tribute to them
For the first time in UK law, those new sections recognise the importance of an observation process in ensuring an open and transparent election, and put us more or less on a par with other democracies. The aim has been welcomed by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Whether it be bureaucratic or not, I think that what we consider right for here is the right approach. I do not think reciprocity for the sake of it is something that would commend itself to people here. They want us to decide what we think is fair and right about the way we run elections, and how much access and openness there should be. The returning officer remaining responsible, so the idea of that person having the ultimate say makes sense to people and would command support. The returning officer must have the opportunity to say no, if necessary. He or she would have to give reasons; in practice, a refusal would be unlikely and a refusal without good reasons more unlikely. The OSCE and the ODIHR recognise that returning officers expect to know who will be serving in their areas and where they will be, for security and other reasons, such as space.
For my own part, I would like to see parties of school students, perhaps doing their citizenship classes, attending the count. I would like to see them attending in all sorts of circumstances. Opening up and making the process more transparent is right, just so that people know what is going on. We all know about counts; we have all been there and heard the rustling of the papers—but we ought to be more open about the process. The immediate justification, of course, is our international treaty obligations, but leaving the registration officers in control of the situation is right. I commend the clause to the House.